The present invention relates generally to learning, and more particularly to computer-aided methods and systems for a group of users to work on a subject.
The most common group-learning environment is a classroom. For thousands of years, knowledge has been conveyed in a classroom, with an instructor teaching a group of students. Such a group-learning environment has many benefits. For example, some students may be too timid to ask questions, though they do not understand. Such students will benefit from others who are not afraid to ask. When the instructor answers a question, many students benefit. While some students learn from the answer, others are encouraged they are not the only one who do not understand. There might even be students feeling superior over the student asking the question because they know the answer. Though such feelings should not be supported, they may motivate some students to learn. These types of psychological advantages of a group-learning environment should not be underestimated.
However, typically, there are too many students in a class. It is not uncommon to have students day-dreaming or even sleeping in class. The instructor just cannot cater to the needs of each student. Also, students in a class room are passive learners. They usually do not interact among themselves during class because information should flow from the instructor to the students, not among the students. With the instructor being the center of attention, students interacting among themselves may be considered as interrupting the instructor and disrupting the classroom atmosphere; those students might be reprimanded. Actually, there are instructors who do not even allow questions from the students.
Another learning environment is a small group of students actively interacting. A student who does not understand a certain area can be assisted by another student. With students interacting, encouraging and even criticizing each other, they are more alert than students in a typical classroom. Such an active interacting environment is more stimulating than the passive learning environment of a classroom.
Not only do students in such an active environment have better concentration, they typically have better understanding of a subject than the passive classroom students. By getting more involved, the students develop more insights in the subject. Also, no one person has exactly the same background and experience as another. During interaction, different students bring into the group different perspective, which can be enlightening.
A similar discussion environment with a lot of interaction is a chat room in the computer world. Members of a chat room typically share a common interest; it can be breast feeding a baby or biology. Usually, there is an initiator, who starts a session of discussion in a certain area within the common interest. Other members of that group respond. It is an environment where information is exchanged freely, in un-controlled discussions. Typically, the session ends when members lose interest. Though interesting, such chat room environments are not geared towards learning. It is more suitable for a group of members with similar interest to express their viewpoints, or exchange ideas.
In order for group discussion environments to be effective, the group should not be too big because a big group discourages interaction. However, a small group can end up gossiping, wasting a lot of their time. Another problem of a small group is that members have limited information. One benefit of a classroom environment is the presence of an instructor, who presumably should have much more knowledge in the subject of interest than the students. A group environment does not have that luxury. The group might get stuck in a certain critical area, and cannot proceed. Also, members might have diverse strengths and weakness. One member of the group might be much weaker than others. He might be left behind by the remaining members of the group, and ultimately drop out of the group.
Another environment to learn that is becoming more prevalent is learning through computers, which are gradually becoming an integral part of our culture. It is not difficult to include fancy audio-visual effects in the instructional materials. Such multimedia computer-aided learning systems can help some of us focus because they can create a lot of stimuli to our senses. Another benefit of computer-aided leaning is the immense amount of information available to the users. Not only do the users have access to harddisks with giga-bytes of information, they can surf the Internet and the World-Wide-Web for practically unlimited resources.
Many computer-aided learning systems that are tailored to the needs of individual students are also in development. Such methods and systems have been illustrated, for example, in the following allowed U.S. patent applications:
1. Methods and Apparatus to Assess and Enhance a Student""s Understanding in a Subject, with Ser. No. 08/618,193;
2. A Reward Enriched Learning System and Method, with Ser. No. 08/633,582;
3. A Relationship-Based Computer-Aided-Educational System, with Ser. No. 08/664,023; and
4. A Learning System and Method Based on Review, with Ser. No. 08/675,391.
These systems and methods are quite intelligent, and very useful. They accurately identify, and offer solutions to, one of the main weaknesses of classroom educationxe2x80x94an instructor cannot cater to the needs of each student. By focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of individual students, computer-aided learning systems can effectively teach, evaluate and reward users.
However, inherent in such computer-aided learning systems and methods is the unavoidable effect of working solely with a machine, not a living being. Until one day we have machines with artificial intelligence that is as sophisticated as a human mind, working with machines typically is not as interesting as interacting with another human being. Even then, we might still prefer to interact with our peers. To be ridiculed by our peers might generate more consequencesxe2x80x94not necessarily productivexe2x80x94than to receive accolades from our computers. We usually prefer to have a certain degree of human touch.
It should have been obvious that there is a need for a computer-aided learning environment for a group of users, where they can interact and work on a subject together.
The present invention provides methods and systems for a computer-aided group-learning environment, where a number of users can interact and work on a subject together.
Not only can the invention include benefits of a personalized computer-aided learning system, such as learning materials tailored to users and large databases of information, the invention can also allow users to interact. A user working in such a group-learning environment is usually much more alert than working individually with a machine. Also, typically, it is more effective to solve a problem by a group than by a single person. Not only do different users bring into the group their different background, experience, knowledge and perspective, a group environment can help users concentrate.
In one embodiment, the invented system can monitor and analyze users"" inputs, such as when they are interacting. This embodiment reduces the potential pitfall of users wasting too much time gossiping or distracted from the subject of interest because the system can be aware of such distractions. Also a weak user can be identified early on so that he can be separately taught to bring him up to speed with the other users. Such a weak user might be more motivated to learn in a group environment than in an individual learning environment because he might be ridiculed or ignored by other users due to his ignorance.
In another embodiment, the analysis process is not limited to identifying a user""s performance in working on the subject, it is also applicable to understanding some of her traits, such as confidence level, and whether or not she has a good learning attitude.
One embodiment of the invention includes an interaction controller, which generates materials on the subject for the users, and sets a duration of time for the users to communicate in a dialogue environment.
To be aware of an end in a dialogue session helps the group focus, because if there is no end in sight, there is a higher tendency for users to wander aimlessly. In one embodiment, the interaction controller initiates and stops a dialogue session for users to communicate among themselves for the duration of time.
In one embodiment, materials generated for the users can be individually tailored to each user, who can access the materials separately from the other users. The interaction controller can also generate questions and tests to determine users"" performance in working on the subject, and provide hints to help users solve problems.
Working on the subject in a group and working alone can be intertwined. For example, the interaction controller can generate materials on the subject for every user individually, and then select a problem for the users to solve. The users first work on the materials generated individually, and then solve the problem together in a dialogue environment for a duration of time. During the dialogue session, the interaction controller can provide hints to the users. After the duration of time, or before, if the users have resolved the problem sooner, the interaction controller can generate additional materials on the subject for the users.
In one embodiment, the system also includes an initializer, a performance analyzer, a recommendation generator, and a report generator. The initializer allows a user, such as an instructor, to set the subject to be learnt. The performance analyzer analyzes users"" inputs to determine their performance, and attitudes, such as their participation levels and modes of participation in the dialogue sessions. The performance analyzer also can generate a summary of the users"" performance to be stored for later retrieval.
Based on outputs from the analyzer, the recommendation generator produces recommendations, which can be used by the interaction controller to determine the materials to be generated for the users, and the way to present the materials to each of them. The recommendation generator can also produce information regarding each user""s performance on the subject, and the effectiveness of the embodiment. It also can suggest what materials each user should individually work on.
The report generator can generate reports, such as on each user""s performance to show what each user should be working on. The reports can also show each user""s progress and the embodiment""s effectiveness in helping users work on the subject.
Another embodiment of the invention further includes a user registry, which restricts the users who can use the embodiment to work on the subject. The registry can receive potential user""s characteristics to determine whether such user may be allowed to join the existing users to work on the subject. The determination may be by an instructor, the embodiment itself, or the existing users. The registry can also access a summarized profile of the existing users to help the potential user decide if she wants to join. To further enhance the decision process, the registry can also provide the potential user temporary access to a dialogue session to communicate with the existing users. Moreover, the registry can forbid an existing user from using the system to work on the subject, based on recommendations, such as from an instructor or other users, or due to the user""s consistently poor performance in working on the subject.
In yet another embodiment, the invention includes a user-profile storage medium, which stores each user""s characteristics, such as his performance in working on the subject, and his input attributes, such as the percentage of his inputs that was related to the subject. In addition, all of the users"" communication can be individually stored, and accessed.
Another embodiment of the invention includes a notepad for a user to take notes. The user can cut materials received by him, and paste them to his notepad; he can link an area in his notes to a point in the materials received from the embodiment, and bookmark certain parts of the materials for his notes. The interaction controller can also guide the user to take notes. This can be done, for example, by generating a summary of the materials for him; the summary can be in a topic format. The amount of details in the summary can depend on the user""s performance in the subject, or can depend on an overall performance of all of the users. The interaction controller can also highlight sections of the materials that the user should take notes, where the highlighted portion can depend on the user""s performance. The use of this notepad is not limited to a group-learning environment; it can be used by a user studying alone.
Other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, which, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, illustrates by way of example the principles of the invention.